Figure 1.--This American boy had his portrai taken about 1906, probably in Texas. His jacket has some elements of Norfolk styling. He wears knicker pants with long stockings. He looks to be 13-14 years old..
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Figure 1.--This American boy had his portrai taken about 1906, probably in Texas. His jacket has some elements of Norfolk styling. He wears knicker pants with long stockings. He looks to be 13-14 years old.. |
Kneepants were the most common type of suit for boys at the turn of the 20th century. Knickers suits came into their own in the 1910s. They rapidly replaced kneepants suits for boys. Knicker suits with Norfolk styling wasespecially popular. With the popularity of knickers we begin to see for the first time major differences began to develop between American and British boys, but it was only fully apparent after World War I. The greatest change
in children's clothing in the postwar period occurred when
dressing boys in skirts until the age of four or five was discarded.
Little girls wore dresses cut much like those of their
mothers, straight and unfitted, but after world War I (1914-18), the
practice of dressing little girls like little boys became increasingly
rare. Instead, little
boys increasingly wore romper suits or
short pants. School-age boys wore knickers
of corduroy or wool with knee-length socks. The eventual change from
knickers to that first pair of long pants became symbolic of the change
from boy to man.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Knicker Pages:
[Return to the Main knicker suit chronology page]
[Return to the Main knicker page]
[Play knickers]
[Above the knee knickers]
[Below the knee knickers]
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Navigate the Historic Boys ' Clothing Web chronological pages:
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